Various methods and systems for providing multitenant computing systems, such as cloud computing, have been attempted. In general, a cloud-based computing environment is a resource that typically combines the computational power of a large model of processors and/or that combines the storage capacity of a large model of computer memories or storage devices. For example, systems that provide a cloud resource may be utilized exclusively by their owners; or such systems may be accessible to outside users who deploy applications within the computing infrastructure to obtain the benefit of large computational or storage resources.
The cloud may be formed, for example, by a network of servers with each server (or at least a plurality thereof) providing processor and/or storage resources. These servers may manage workloads provided by multiple users (e.g., cloud resource consumers or other users). Typically, each user places workload demands upon the cloud that vary in real-time, sometimes dramatically. The nature and extent of these variations typically depend on the type of business associated with the user.
Oftentimes, these cloud computing systems leverage virtual machines for their users. A virtual machine (“VM”) is an emulation of a real-world computing system. Often, the virtual machine provides a user with one or more different operating systems than the operating system of the local machine (“host”) that is running the virtual machine. The VM provides a complete system platform that provides the one or more operating systems. The VM is typically managed by a hypervisor that mediates computing resources of the host machine for use by the VM via hardware emulation. The use of hardware emulation is often deleterious to VM performance and, in turn, reduces the number of VMs that may run on a given host machine. Additionally, as the number of VMs on a host machine increases and they begin to operate concurrently, the hypervisor must coordinate the varying workloads of the VMs to prevent instability. Thus, the scheduling required by the hypervisor is critical in ensuring that the underlying hardware system is utilized properly.